As if often the case, I see a lot of comments about the root of problems related to poverty by folks who don’t have any contact with the class of people that are talking about. There seem to be a lot of assumptions made about the poor in the US that aren’t necessarily true.
I am fortunate in that I have moved up out of the “middle-class” about 10 years ago. However, unlike most folks in the upper quintile income levels, I actually deal with folks who are in the other 4 income quintiles on a daily basis. I talk to them, discuss their health and life and attempt to keep them from going blind without going bankrupt. Because of this intimate interaction, I can tell you that the landscape of welfare and Medicaid has changed drastically in the last 30 years.
Simply put, some of the stereotypes I hear put forth about the poor and the folks that receive welfare benefits are completely out of touch with reality and are based more on personal bias and ignorance than actual information.
I certainly don’t have any perfect solutions for income disparity, the shrinking of the middle class, poverty, hunger, or the stifling affect that taxes have on business growth. I do know that most of the knee jerk dogmatic tropes that I hear are simply not true (from both the left and the right).
Ted (I think it was Ted?) mentioned in one post that there were two primary issues that are causing our economy troubles, health care and education. I couldn’t agree more. As someone who actually provides health care, I can tell you how broken our current system is. I also spend some years accrediting institutions of higher education and residency programs, so I am familiar with some of the problems in education as well.
Since most of my income is from pass through businesses and my income is below the $315,000 cap, I get a 20% income deduction from most of my income. That means that I’ll pay roughly $15,000 less in tax this year than last year. I really like that extra $15k and it will go directly to my retirement savings, since I don’t have enough. However, that tax break for me isn’t doing a think to help the economy. It would have been better spent giving it to the folks in the middle income quintile who would actually spend it to boost the economy. Even so, I’ll save my tax break while it last.